Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
History and Literature
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
History and Literature
•if histories like Herodotus’ encompass
“story” along with “history,” does literature
then do the same?
•historians benefit from the study of fictional
works in at least two ways:
– literature often includes much “history”
– the process of writing literature overlaps with its
historical cousin in many respects
•all in all, good history is often good “story”
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
History and Literature
•two of the best creators of fiction in western
literature are Homer and Vergil
•let’s examine their works from a historian’s
perspective and see what they teach us about
what-really-happened-in-the-past
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Homer
•Quintilian: “Homer is the river from which all
literature flows.”
•high quality of poetry: flashbacks, character
development, pathos
•to many, he’s both the first and the best
Western author
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Homer
•The Iliad
– the earliest preserved epic in Western literature
•an epic is a long narrative poem involving heroic
struggle, gods, and often the conquest of death
– set entirely at the walled city of Troy (Ilium)
– Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector, Priam
– centers around Achilles’ anger and his refusal to
fight after Agamemnon shames him in public
– does not tell the story of the Trojan Horse or
the Sack of Troy!
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Homer
•The Odyssey
– in the aftermath of the Trojan War, Odysseus
(Ulysses) returns home
•Odysseus makes it home safely to Penelope
•unlike Agamemnon who is killed by his wife
Clytemnestra
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Homer
•the gods are major players in both epics
– e.g. Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of
Olympus
• equated with the Roman deities Jupiter and Juno
– but unlike God in the Old Testament, these
divinities are sometimes treated comically
– e.g. “The Seduction of Zeus” (Iliad, Book 14)
•Homer also explores the tragic side of life
– e.g. “Odysseus and Argus” (Odyssey, Book 17)
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Homer
•Who is Homer?
– little is known: birthplace? date of birth?
– he probably was blind
•Milman Parry: Homer was an oral bard
– explains repetitive formulas (oral formulas)
– and also the frequency of weak joins
•So how was Homer’s text preserved?
– through rhapsodes (“stitchers of song”)?
– but do we have Homer’s actual text?
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Homer and History
•does Homer’s work preserve “history”?
– Unlikely, because Homer:
• was probably blind
• lived three dark and illiterate centuries after the fact
• made a living as an entertainer, not a historian
– on the other hand, there could be echoes of
what-really-happened historically in his work
• he records accurately the armor of that day
– cf. Medieval bards who got many things right historically
• epic was all Homer’s society had as a means of
remembering their past, which made it valuable
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Homer and History
•the question then is which details are “whatreally-happened” and which are “invented
history”
– Troy itself may even have been a real place, as
we’ll see in the next Section of the class
– but exactly the way Homer describes the city?
•finally, even if it is an invented history,
Homer’s work preserves the desires and
values of a society, and those per se are
important historical truths
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil
•Vergil is Rome’s greatest poet
•much reliable biographical information
– 70-19 BCE; cf. Julius Caesar
– e.g. middle-class but well educated
– slow and meticulous perfectionist
•however, very little reliable evidence is
preserved about his private life, suggesting he
probably didn’t have much of one
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid
•early in his career, Vergil wrote pastoral
poetry (about life in the country)
•in the early 20’s BCE, the Roman emperor
Augustus commissioned Vergil to write an
epic poem glorifying Rome
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid
•the result was The Aeneid
– published only ten years later
– Vergil died leaving it unfinished
– nevertheless, it became an instant classic
– yet it was not about Augustus
– instead, it is set in the distant (mythological)
past
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid
•the central character is Aeneas
– problem for Vergil: Aeneas in Homer’s Iliad is a
braggart and a coward
• at one point, his mother Venus has to save him from
being killed in battle
– Vergil’s solution: pius Aeneas
•twelve “books” of The Aeneid
–vs. 48 (24 + 24) of The Iliad and The Odyssey
– thus, The Aeneid is a “miniaturized” Homeric
epic
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 1
•Vergil leaps in medias res (“in the middle of
things”)
– Aeneas is caught in a storm sent by Juno to
destroy him (Book 1)
•n.b. Aeneas is depressed
and suicidal
– he and his ragged band of
Trojan refugees wash up on
the shores of North Africa
where he meets Dido, the
Queen of Carthage
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 2
•Dido hosts Aeneas and his men at a banquet
and then asks him to tell the assembled
crowd how Troy fell
– again, Vergil’s focus is
psychological as Aeneas
“relives” the Sack of Troy
– at the climax of Book 2,
Aeneas recalls having seen
Priam killed by Pyrrhus
– Priam’s death recalls
Pompey’s murder
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 3-5
•Aeneas and Dido have an intense love affair
but duty calls and the gods order Aeneas to
serve a higher calling, the founding of Rome
•Dido begs him to stay
in Carthage but he
refuses and leaves
•Dido commits suicide
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 6
•in Book 6, Aeneas goes to the Underworld
and sees the ghost of Dido who scorns him
•at the climax of Book 6, he watches a
triumphal pageant of Rome-yet-to-come
•at the end, Aeneas leaves through the “Gate
of Ivory” (Book 6)
– is Vergil saying Rome a “false dream”?
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid, Books 7-12
•Aeneas arrives in Italy and has to battle for a
new homeland for his Trojan comrades
•he fights a local hero Turnus over the hand
in marriage of the king’s daughter
•The Aeneid ends with Aeneas killing Turnus
in a one-on-one duel (Book 12)
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid: Conclusion
•what does Vergil mean with all these
confusing suggestions?
– it seems clear The Aeneid is not only a story
about the deep mythological past
– but what is the key to cracking this code?
– Aeneas clearly begins as a depressed and
disturbed “hero” and evolves into a ruthless
murderer
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Vergil’s Aeneid: Conclusion
•what does Vergil mean with all these
confusing suggestions?
– what is the learned poet’s diagnosis of Rome’s
tormented psychology?
– is this epic what Augustus was paying for?
– is that why Vergil on his deathbed asked that
The Aeneid be burned? Because in writing it he
had pointed to greater truths than he originally
meant to — or had been paid to?
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Conclusion: History and Literature
•great questions are what great literature
brings to the feast of history
– fiction can reveal very real facets of the past
abstracted as myth and fantasy
•for instance, Homer shows how early the
human heart formed, where a noble dog’s
death is worth a “salt tear”
– and those at the top don’t always comport
themselves with the dignity of their position
– so, is this Homer’s version of “chaos theory”?
Ancient Epic: Homer and Vergil
Conclusion: History and Literature
•in a very different way, Vergil gives voice to
the murmurs of discontented “slaves” who
work for the regime oppressing them
•if literature cannot stand alone as a gateway
to the past, it enriches and brings a healthy
confusion to our assessment of history
– and even if that doesn’t actually take us nearer
to what-literally-happened, it shows the
psychological complexity underlying the ways in
which the past has unfolded